Picnics, and Eva
by Convenient Alias
Summary: Tenma plans a picnic for his fiancée, Eva. He hopes everything will go well, but when Eva gets involved with anything, things get tricky.


AN: This story centers around the picnic that Tenma had planned for Eva in the flashback she had. The one where the tablecloth went flying when she kicked away the stone holding it down. Take it as such.

Also, I haven't finished watching the series, so if the story contains some kind of incorrect information, forgive me. And please review.

* * *

Tenma wasn't the best at cooking, and neither was Eva.

The result was that whenever they had lunch together they went to a restaurant. Usually a café. Eva liked rich, expensive dinners but only light lunches, and Tenma had no preference.

Today, however, he was going to try something new. Well, more like something old. He was going to take Eva on a good old fashioned picnic. It would be a surprise.

He wasn't quite sure what Eva would like to eat in a situation like this. He'd made about ten different kinds of sandwiches, most with meat in them because she liked meat. He had turkey, ham, roast beef, salami, sausage, bacon…

Of course, there was no telling when Eva would suddenly decide that she was on a diet so he'd packed peanut butter and jelly as well.

The sandwiches took forever to make but were simple enough. Choosing a drink was more complicated.

The problem was that Eva liked wine.

But wine? On a picnic? It just felt…wrong. Maybe beer or something like that would be more appropriate but Tenma didn't really think they were Eva's style.

Coffee?

He packed a pitcherful and several paper cups.

He also packed lemonade. Sure, Eva was picky, but who didn't like lemonade? Tenma was personally quite fond of it.

He packed these and some cookies. Picnics were incomplete without dessert.

The tablecloth he'd chosen had a simple pattern. As he looked down at it, he pictured Eva sitting on it. The simplicity would not suit Eva's idea of elegance, but he thought she would look cute. She might pout a bit at first, about all the messiness, but maybe once they got around to eating she would start to like it.

And then she would smile.

And it would be perfect.

Eva hardly ever smiled, not for real. She would smile at her friends and then later tell him that they were all worthless backstabbers and really, spending time with them was unbearable and he would simply have to buy her dinner to make it better.

She smiled that way at Tenma too sometimes, the barely tolerant smile. Sometimes he wondered what she said to her friends about him when he was not around. He didn't mind if she complained. After all, he was hardly the ideal fiancé.

But he thought perhaps she could stand him just a bit more than her friends. Why? Because with her friends she always kept at least a façade of friendship going. With him, she would always insult or belittle or just plain scream. It could mean she thought he was even more stupid than the rest of her friends, but if so, why would she spend so much time with him when she avoided her friends as much as possible?

Tenma thought the answer was something different. He thought maybe she let it all out around him because she trusted him not to get mad back or stop liking her. Maybe because he was one person she felt safe around. Maybe he was that one man she knew loved her not because she was nice but because she was Eva.

And maybe that was why, every once in a while, she would look at him with the most beautiful smile, the one that made it all worth it.

Today he didn't care if she ranted or railed, as long as she would sit down with him and eat the sandwiches he made for her and smile.

/…./…./…

"Yo, Doctor Tenma!" Doctor Becker said with a grin. "How did that surprise picnic go for you?"

Tenma frowned contemplatively at his colleague, only half there. "Next time, I'm wrapping the sandwiches in plastic wrap."

"Um," said Doctor Becker. "Yes, that sounds like a good idea."

"And I'll use a bigger rock so she can't kick it. Maybe a boulder?" he pondered. "Becker-san, do you know where I can find a boulder?"

Becker shrugged. "Sorry, no."

"Hmm," said Tenma. "Well, I'd better go find one then. And maybe some bug spray."

Becker smiled. "You doing it again then?"

Tenma nodded.

"It went that well?"

Tenma shrugged and turned away.

"That's strange," Becker mused. "I never took Eva for the picnic type."

"She's not," said Tenma. "So I've got to try again."

"What? You mean it went badly?"

"I've got to do it again," Tenma continued. "To find that beautiful scene I can see in my head and show it to Eva. Then maybe she will understand."

Doctor Becker blinked. "Getting a little deep for me there, doctor."

"Goodbye, Becker-san," Tenma said suddenly. He turned away and walked off purposefully, muttering, "Boulders…"


End file.
